As a drive apparatus for an opening/closing body such as a sunroof panel and a sunshade panel provided at a roof of a vehicle, a roof panel and a back window panel of a convertible, a swing door and a tail gate provided at sides or rear portion of the vehicle, a window panel provided at a door of a vehicle, in JP2004-11322A, a conventional drive apparatus including a rotational drive apparatus, a drive unit including a reduction gear mechanism linked with a rotational shaft of the rotational drive apparatus and an output member linked with the rotational shaft through a reduction gear mechanism and linked with an opening/closing body through a connection member, a pulse signal generator provided at the drive unit and generating a pulse signal on the basis of rotations of the rotational shaft, and a control means for calculating a position of the opening/closing body in relation to opening and closing on the basis of the pulse signal emitted by the pulse signal generator and for controlling stop of the rotational drive apparatus on the basis of the position of the opening/closing body in relation to opening and closing is described.
In addition, the drive unit includes a position-detecting means for detecting that the connection member achieves a predetermined base position provided between the drive unit and the connection member. When the position-detecting means detects that the connection member achieves the base position, a calculation of position on the basis of pulse signals generated by the pulse signal generator is corrected, and thus a predetermined opening/closing position of the opening/closing body can be recognized more accurately.
However, in the conventional apparatus described above, the position-detecting means detects the base position through the connection member. Accordingly, a detected portion of the connection member detected by the position-detecting member becomes the base position only once in a whole stroke for opening and closing the opening/closing body. In other words, chance for detecting the base position by the position-detecting means is obtained only once in the whole stroke for opening and closing the opening/closing body. Therefore, depending on a width of a range of opening and closing the opening/closing body, when the opening/closing body is opened or closed in only a range that the connection member does not achieve the base position, the calculation of position of the opening/closing body on the basis of pulse signals generated by the pulse signal generator cannot be corrected. As a result, there is a danger that the control means does not recognize the predetermined position accurately.
A need thus exists for a drive apparatus for an opening/closing body of a vehicle in which a control means can recognize a predetermined position accurately, regardless of a width of a range of opening and closing the opening/closing body.